Fast thinking medics, however, were able to immediately identity the infection and start treatment quickly.

“Elton contracted a harmful and unusual bacterial infection," said the star's rep.

"During his return flight home from Santiago, Chile, he became violently ill. Upon returning to the UK, Elton’s doctors admitted him to hospital where he underwent immediate treatment to remove the infection.”

Sir Elton is now resting at home (Image: Getty Images for EJAF)

Sir Elton with David Furnish and their two kids (Image: Getty)

Despite the danger of contracting a “rare and potentially deadly” infection, the singer-songwriter is thankfully now on the road to recovery, although he’s cancelled upcoming work commitments on doctors’ orders.

Sir Elton was discharged from hospital on Saturday.

His rep praised the legend's medical team for immediately identifying the potentially deadly infection and starting treatment quickly.

“He is now comfortably resting at home per doctors’ advice,” his spokesperson told The Mirror

“Thankfully Elton’s medical team identified this quickly and treated it successfully. He is expected to make a full and complete recovery.”

Sir Elton has cancelled work commitments until June (Image: Gary Miller/Getty Images)

Sir Elton has cancelled all work commitments for the next six weeks including a string of residency dates in Las Vegas; he is expected to return to work on June 3 with his Twickenham concert.

He apologised to fans in a statement.

“I am so fortunate to have the most incredible and loyal fans and apologise for disappointing them. I am extremely grateful to the medical team for their excellence in looking after me so well.”

It’s not the first time Sir Elton’s had a serious health scare in recent years.

He cancelled a 2013 concert for appendicitis surgery (Image: Getty)

Sir Elton called his 2013 health scare a "wake up call" (Image: Getty)

In July 2013, his concert at London’s Hyde Park was cancelled when the star had to undergo emergency appendicitis surgery - and he later admitted he "could have easily died" without treatment.

"I knew I was sick but I didn’t know I had such a dangerous thing inside of me until I had a scan, which was after nine shows, 24 flights and a summer ball," he told The Telegraph .

"I’m a great believer in signs coming to you in life to tell you something. This appendix thing, it’s so lucky I didn’t die. So I’m treating is as a sign in great big letters saying ‘for f**k’s sake, get a grip."